Host Microbiomics – Effects of environmental and physical stressors, interventions, and pathogens on composition and function

Mounting evidence in recent years has revealed the importance of the complex community of organisms found in, and on, the human body, known collectively as the microbiome including bacteria, viruses, and fungi. Studies have predominately focused on bacterial flora, especially in the gut, lung, and skin, and have highlighted the importance of the microbiota in homeostasis including immune system modulation, epithelial barrier integrity, nutrient absorption, protection against pathogen infection, and maintaining organ system homeostasis. Disruption of a balanced microbiome (dysbiosis) has been linked with altered host function and disease. High- throughput technologies have revealed insight into the diversity of the microbial community composition, however, they have also laid bare our lack of understanding of the specific functions of these microbes, particularly in health and disease.

The aim of this research topic is to build a broad collection of original research articles utilizing high throughput methods (e.g. 16S, whole genome, metagenomic, transcriptomic, metabolomic, proteomic) to identify microbiome composition and link it with functional outputs. Stress-inducing and mitigating approaches, such as hypoxia, cold/heat, pathogen, diet/nutritional supplementation, exercise are of particular interest.

Intestinal and pulmonary microbiomes are of particular interest, especially studies linking these microbiomes to other organs (e.g. gut-brain, gut-lung, gut-skin axes). Current interests also include research related to SARS-CoV-2 infection as emerging evidence is showing that it can affect other organ systems and may impact the microbiome.